PHILADELPHIA — Ryne Sandberg celebrated his new, three-year commitment to manage the Phillies Sunday morning. About three hours later, he'd had a fresh reminder of why the job was open in the first place.

As if to package an entire season in take-home form as a Fan Appreciation Day give-away, the Phillies wasted strong Cliff Lee pitching, hit poorly in late-game situations, made a critical defensive mistake and ran a losing streak to four with a 4-3 loss to the New York Mets.

Fittingly, the final play of the home portion of their season was a strikeout by Jimmy Rollins that left the tying run locked at second.

In a too-typical example of his season, Lee fanned eight in seven innings, allowing eight hits and three earned runs. But Domonic Brown mishandled Wilfredo Tovar's bouncing single to left in the seventh, with two runs scoring to give the Mets a 3-2 lead.

“I feel like I did OK,” Lee said. “I made it basically all year without getting injured. I had a minor deal where I missed two starts, but other than that I was able to take the ball and give the team a chance to win more often than not. And as a starting pitcher, that's my job. So I've got to feel pretty good about that.”

Lee's record would dip to 14-6 as the Phillies wasted late-game chances. After the Mets took a 4-2 lead on a Lucas Duda RBI double in the eighth, Darin Ruf plated a hustling Carlos Ruiz with an RBI foul-out deep along the first base line. But with Brown on third, Cody Asche struck out for the third time in the game, ending the threat.

The Phils stirred in the ninth when Kevin Frandsen led off with a single, was sacrificed by Freddy Galvis to second and replaced by pinch-runner Roger Bernadina. But Cesar Hernandez and Rollins struck out, sending the remaining 44,398 customers into their offseason as the Phillies prepared to head to Miami and Atlanta for their final seven games.

“Offensively, it was kind of the same story for the whole weekend — missed opportunities with men on base,” Sandberg said. “And any of these three games could have gone the other way with hitting a guy in from third or coming up with a clutch hit.

“We really didn't capitalize throughout the weekend on some opportunities in close games. And that came back to haunt us.”

The Phils had a 1-0 lead when Frandsen doubled to deliver Brown in the second, but the Mets answered in the fourth when Eric Young singled and eventually scored. Young was 2-for-5 with a double and a run scored. With the sweep, the Mets have caught the Phillies for third place in the National League East at 71-84.

Chase Utley went 2-for-4 to raise his average to .281, but the Phillies struck out 11 times, six against starter Carlos Torres, who improved to 4-5. The next time they are seen in Citizens Bank Park, they likely will be different. But how?

“I think health is big,” Utley said. “Getting some guys back in our lineup is always important. And I think our bullpen from the beginning of the season until the end of the season has really come around. So it's good that they got that experience. Hopefully, that can continue next year. Also, there are some young guys in here who can definitely contribute here next year.”

As for this year, they are on their second manager … but, it showed Sunday, still in a familiar struggle.